People can take several steps to protect themselves and their loved ones and increase their chances of surviving a fire.

Every household should develop a fire escape plan and practice it several times a year and at different times of the day.

Include two ways to get out of every room and consider escape ladders for sleeping areas or homes on the second floor or above.

Pick a place outside for everyone to meet and make sure everyone knows where it is.

Practice that home fire drill until everyone in the household can do it in less than two minutes.

Install smoke alarms on every level of the home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Test them every month and replace the batteries at least once a year.

Fire experts agree that people may have as little as two minutes to escape a burning home before it’s too late to get out.

More than forty percent (42 percent) of Americans feel confident they can escape their burning home in two minutes. Most parents (69 percent) believe their children would know what to do or how to escape with little help.

The problem with these assumptions is that less than half of parents (48 percent) with children ages 3-17 have talked to their families about fire safety.

Only a third (30 percent) of families with children have identified a safe place to meet outside the home.

Less than one in five families with children (18 percent) have actually practiced home fire drills.

Seven times a day, someone in this country dies in a home fire. Just in the past month, three lives have been lost in Wisconsin alone. For more information, please visit redcross.org/firesafety